Trump Administration Plans Sweeping Changes to Accreditation

The Trump administration wants the agencies that oversee colleges and universities to set minimum standards for student achievement, protect viewpoint diversity and consider cost efficiency in their evaluation of institutions, among other changes unveiled Monday.

That last provision would help to “provide relief for students and taxpayers who have suffered from increasing tuition by allowing greater institutional flexibility to control costs,” according to a nine-page summary of the Education Department’s 151-page proposal.

An advisory committee will consider the administration’s proposed revisions to the rules that govern accreditors in two rounds of weeklong meetings that begin April 13. Those meetings are the next step in the department’s rule-making process. Any changes still will be subject to public comment. (The full list of committee members is here.)

Trump officials have signaled for the last year that they see overhauling accreditation as key to their plans to reform higher education over all. The draft changes released Monday outline how exactly they plan to rework the system, which is critical to how colleges access billions in federal student aid.

As expected, the department wants to make it easier for new accreditors to gain federal recognition and to require accreditors to ensure colleges and universities are complying with federal laws, “including the prohibition of preferential treatment based on protected characteristics, such as race-based scholarships or programs, and preferential hiring or promotion practices.”

The administration also would “direct accrediting agencies to refrain from interfering with institutional governance decisions that fall within the rightful purview of state governments, boards of trustees, or similar governing bodies, limiting their role to advisory purposes only.” 

The department’s push to require accreditors to set minimum standards for student achievement will likely add fuel to a long-simmering debate in college accountability. Accreditors have resisted for years setting bright-line metrics to gauge college performance, arguing they already use student achievement data to assess institutions but take a holistic view to evaluating institutions. But a range of advocates have countered that accreditors are failing in their quality-assurance role and minimum standards would protect students from low-quality programs.

The Biden administration sought to put a similar requirement in place but ran out of time to finalize the rule.

Under the Trump administration’s proposal, accreditors would have to use program-level student outcomes as well as identify minimum expectations related to return on investment, completion rates, placement rates and state licensing exam success, according to the summary.